This involved putting a cloth over her face and pouring water over it, which “gives the sensation of drowning”.

On one occasion, he subjected her to a “sustained and brutal assault, beginning in the morning and ending in the evening”, said Mr Watson.

He said: “It started with the defendant punching her to the face, knocking out her tooth. It continued by this defendant taking a metal pipe from a vacuum cleaner.

He used that to repeatedly hit her, until the pipe itself broke – even then he continued to use the splintered pipe to hit her, causing cuts.”

During the attack, Ahmed, of Clarence Road, Derby, also made her lie face down in a bath and held her head under the water. It continued into the evening and he would beat her, she said, until he ran out of energy. His response then was to cry, saying he could not sleep due to the realisation of what he had done.”

Despite this, he did not let her out for “some days” because her bruises would be seen by others. “Part of the controlling behaviour was to stop her seeing friends and family,” said Mr Watson.

But after this day-long assault, the girl had contacted her mum to come to get her and she was “panicking and scared”. The police were called and officers found “blood spattered on the bedroom wall, on bedding and the pillow”. Part off a tooth was also recovered.

The girl was taken to hospital and on examination was found to have swelling, tenderness and scabs to the back of her right hand; bruising and tenderness on her right forearm; redness around both of her eyes; bite marks on her left cheek and chest; bruising over both shoulders; tender ribs; scabs on her bottom; a friction burn to her chin; bruising to her ears; a cut lip; a broken tooth; and a 3.5cm long burn mark to her abdomen.

Giving Ahmed a two-year detention and training order, of which he will spend 12 months in custody, Judge Ebraham Mooncey said:

“This is a very serious case and when one looks at the facts, had you been an adult you would be looking at a very lengthy sentence indeed.

All in all, you would have been leaving this court with six or seven years today.”

But, he said, he had taken into account that Ahmed was only 16 and the difficulties he had had in his life….